World Cafe

2:30 pm

Mon August 6, 2012

Next: La Santa Cecilia

The L.A. band La Santa Cecilia crafts a unique style of Latin Alternative music by mixing traditional South American rhythms with everything from tango and mariachi to rock, jazz and Afro-Cuban percussion. The sextet, named for the patron saint of musicians, is led by the enchanting voice and often eccentrically flamboyant presence of Marisol "La Marisoul" Hernandez.

La Santa Cecilia's new album, Noche y Citas Con Chicle (which translates to "Night and Dating With Gum"), is an expansion of the band's first EP. The "con chicle" in the title references the idea that the new songs are leftovers from La Santa Cecilia's original Noche Y Citas EP — they're like gum stuck on the underside of a table. The band makes slight tempo adjustments in its bluesy expanded tracks; that trick works especially well in "Chicle," which was featured on the Showtime drama Weeds. The band was also recently nominated for a Latin Grammy for "La Negra." In this installment of World Cafe: Next, get to know La Santa Cecilia a little better and listen to two tracks host David Dye hand-selected from its debut album.